Relief for Energis as Ision sticks to forecast

Energis signalled trading was on track at its German subsidiary Ision as the unit yesterday reported a 39 per cent increase in first-half sales. The telecoms company's shares responded by climbing 10.5 per cent to 84p – the biggest riser in the FTSE 100 index.

Investors had been expecting the worst at Ision as rumours circulated that a profit warning was on the way. But Ision said it was "confident" of meeting its targets for the year ended 31 March. Analysts are forecasting it to produce an Ebitda, or underlying, loss of around £15m on sales of around £90m.

While the company said its results were second-half-weighted, it pointed out that 90 per cent of its full-year plan was already accounted for.

In the six months ended 30 June, Ision reported an Ebitda loss of £6.6m on sales of £36m. Its gross margin rose 4.9 percentage points to 51.2 per cent.

David Wickham, Energis's chief executive, said a "slight weakening" in e-commerce had been offset by a strengthening in its outsourcing business. "One cannot afford to be complacent in these areas. We're watching our market segments very carefully but now we've integrated our businesses in Germany, we've got a much better spread," he said.

Only last month, Energis had warned that its own sales in the first six months might miss expectations.